One Day, Robots Will Cry
by Vaneles
Summary: After the war, he hadn't planned on returning to the village. He wanted to travel the world and work towards redeeming himself before he ever stepped foot in that place again. Too bad fate seemed to have other ideas. (This is a re-load)


DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto or the songs used in this fic.

"One Day, Robots Will Cry" belongs to Cobra Starship

 **One Day, Robots Will Cry**

 _ **Prologue**_

Rain fell heavily from the dark sky, lightning flashed in the distance. The windows creaked when the dull rumble of thunder rolled through. Blue eyes stared out the window as another flash of lightning passed. The room he was in lit up momentarily before giving way to the darkness. "N-Naruto-kun?" Naruto turned to look over his shoulder and saw a woman standing there in a pale purple shirt and a pair of black capris. Her long black hair was left down, falling just above her hips. "Is something w-wrong?" she asked as she stepped into the room with him.

"Hinata-chan... go back to bed." he said forcing a smile for her.

"Tell me what's wrong?" she asked again. Her pearl eyes searched his own for an answer and she was relieved when he sighed and closed his eyes.

"I don't think that she's going to get better this time..." he admitted quietly.

She knew instantly who and what he was talking about. Her gaze fell to the floor. She was one of the few people who knew about _her_ and what exactly was wrong. "What are you going to d-do?"

"I... I don't know what to do." he said ruefully. A sad smile crossed his lips as he turned fully to look Hinata in the eye. "I have an idea, but I don't know if Kaka-sensei will agree." He felt Hinata grab his hand and pull it to her chest before placing a gentle kiss on the top.

"I think that if it's for Sakura, he'll agree."

He nodded. ''We'll find him. I promised I would."

Hinata held his hand tighter. "What will you tell him?"

Naruto looked out the window as lightning flashed by again. He closed his eyes in thought and sighed. "Everything."

"Open the damn door!" Staring, or rather glaring, at the door before her, was a tall blond-haired woman with pale blue eyes. She wore a deep purple camisole shirt over a fish net tank top. Black shorts covered her upper thighs, while a matching purple skirt fell just above her knees. Black heeled sandals covered her feet and a silver chain sat low on her right ankle. "I swear if you don't open this door right now...!" she said as she banged on the door a few times. To her confusion, the door opened with a soft click and revealed an empty hall. "Hello?" She walked in and shut the door behind her. Walking into all of the rooms she searched for any sign of life. "You better not be hiding your chakra on me! I swear that when I find you, I'll kill you." She called out again.

She came upon the last room in the house when she caught the scent of vanilla and sandalwood. And the nauseating scent of alcohol. She opened the door and found a woman her age sitting naked in the bath tub, the water resting just under the edge of the tub rim. She was lying back against the edge with her long pink hair hanging over the side of the tub. Pale green eyes staring up at the ceiling blankly. "Sakura..." she said softly.

"Ino...?" the pink-haired woman said quietly.

Ino walked over to the tub and knelt down next to the side. Her sky blue eyes softened as she reached in and pulled the stopper up to empty the cold water. She reached out to brush away a few strands of damp hair from the woman's face. "Come on. Let's get you out of this freezing water." she said as she pulled her friends body out of the tub and helped her to her feet. She wrapped a few towels around her body when she started to shiver. She grabbed another towel from the closet and set it on the woman's head and noticed the dazed look in her eyes. "Sakura... tell me you didn't." Ino started. But she had no need to finish when Sakura tilted her face away.

"...".

Ino sighed as she began to towel dry Sakura's hair. "I'm going to have a talk with your team. You living alone is obviously a bad idea. I'd let you live with me but Sai and I have a one bedroom flat." she waited for a response of some sort, but got nothing. So she continued. "You've been out of it for a month already Sakura. Do you even remember the last time you were sober?" Ino scolded. "Every day I come visit and you're always drunk off your ass. What if I didn't come by today? You could have fallen asleep and sunk into the water and drown! What would Naruto say if I had to tell him his friend drowned in her bathtub?!"

Sakura remained silent throughout the whole speech. She didn't feel like dealing with Ino's lectures. As soon as she was dry and dressed, Sakura mustered as much strength as she could and pushed Ino away. "Go home Ino." she slurred.

"No. You need help Sakura. What's been going on with you? Ever since you came back from that mission in Grass-"

"Don't! Don't you dare-, I'll-"

"You'll what?" Ino challenged. "You'll hit me? Never talk to me again? What are you, five?" Ino shook her head and laughed. "You're always holed up in your apartment and you haven't been yourself since that mission and I..." Ino looked away and bit back a sob. "I want the old Sakura back."

Sakura stared at Ino with unfocused eyes. "Go home."

Ino smiled ruefully and gave a soft laugh. "Fine." And with that, Ino turned and left the apartment.

Sakura staggered a bit and fell against her wall, holding herself up with what little strength she had. They had never been the best of friends, but Ino was one of the few who bothered to visit her anymore. The only other people she saw was Tsunade, Shizune, Naruto and Hinata. Occasionally Kakashi, Sai and Yamato would stop by when they weren't busy. But they knew.

Sakura pushed herself up from the wall and stumbled into her bedroom, falling face first into her bed. Tears welled in her eyes, a few sobs shook her body as she grabbed her pillow and held it tightly to her body. She sat up suddenly, clutching her chest with one hand while the other covered her mouth as she started to cough and dry heave. After a few minutes, the coughing stopped and she pulled her hand away to stare at her bloody palm. _Ino… I'm sorry._

For the past three days, it had done nothing but rain. And frankly, he was getting fed up with the weather. The constant rain meant having to waste time searching for a village or a cave to hide away in until it stopped. Sitting at the mouth of a cave deep in the waterfall country, Sasuke closed his eyes and listened to the falling rain. Sometimes the sound helped him to think. But his moment of quiet was cut short by two loud screams. Sighing deeply, he stood up and began to walk back towards his companions. They'd wind up killing each other if he didn't break up their fights.

"What the hell bitch?!"

Sasuke walked up to see Suigetsu holding his head while Karin stood over him with an arrogant smirk on her face. Juugo sat by the fire, where Sasuke told him to stay, staring at the flames. "Serves you right you hentai!"

"I'm not being a hentai! I'm stating the obvious!"

As though she just noticed him, and he think that she actually had just noticed, Karin looked up and squealed as she ran towards Sasuke and went to grab his arm. "Sasuke-kun! Suigetsu was saying all sorts of nasty things to me!" She whined.

He side-stepped her easily and moved to sit down by the fire. He never cared for her invading his space, and he didn't think that she'd ever understand that so he gave up trying and just flat out ignored her. "Quit trying to rape the poor guy Karin. We've been with him for how long and you get rejected every time. Obviously he doesn't want you."

Sasuke tuned them out as Karin screeched yet again and began screaming at Suigetsu. He leaned back against the wall and pulled a knee up and set his right arm on his knee. Suigetsu's question rang in his mind. How long had it been?

It had been eight years since he first left Konoha, and five years since he killed Orochimaru and Itachi. Shortly after killing Itachi though, Madara told Sasuke the truth about his older brother as well as the people responsible for giving the order to eliminate the clan. After attacking Konoha and killing the people Madara told him about, he killed Madara and left. And hadn't been back since.

Idly, he wondered what his old team was doing. He didn't care though. It was more out of curiosity then anything. He wanted to know if they had been strong enough to survive the fight against Akatsuki as well as his own attack. Though even if they had survived, they would still be weak and useless, compared to him at least.

Suigetsu looked over at Sasuke's far away gaze and nudged his shoulder. Sasuke looked at him out of the corner of his eyes and glared. "What?"

"So I hear that your old village was rebuilt and they just finished the last of the repairs a few months ago."

Sasuke didn't really see the point. "And?"

"The Hokage gathered a new council and made some new laws."

"I fail to see why I should care."

"The Hokage is that sensei of yours that we came across when we attacked five years ago."

That seemed to get his attention. "Hn." Sasuke turned back to the fire and snorted.

"It's true." Juugo said, catching all of their attention. "I heard from some of the villagers a few days ago that he became Hokage after we left. Your friend married the Hyuuga girl.

Karin nodded. "Oh yeah! I heard that too. I think that the old woman we saw, the Godaime, she's on his council."

Suigetsu added, "Yeah and his advisor is an ANBU medic. She's pretty hot too."

Sasuke continued to stare into the fire. He hadn't cared about the village gossip as they would pass through. So it wasn't a wonder that he hadn't heard.

"Oh man! She's hotter than any girl I've come across. She's passed the Godaime in pretty much everything. She's ranked as S-class in the Bingo book. Oh! I have it here." Suigetsu fished around his pack until he found a black book and began searching through it.

Karin scoffed. "She can't beat me in looks or in power. I'm perfect!" she said as she laughed and leaned against Sasuke's arm. He sent her a glare and she just smiled.

Suigetsu snorted. "Nope. She's got you beat. In every category. She's like every man's wet dream." Karin gagged at his words while Juugo smiled. "Ah here it is." he held the book up to Karin and pointed to the picture. "See? She's hot."

Karin took the book and began to read through the information listed. "I don't think it's real. In fact, none of her is real. There's no way she could have those looks naturally."

"I think you're jealous."

Karin threw the book at his head. "And I think you're an idiot."

And thus, their fighting began anew.

Juugo picked up the book and flipped through till he got to the page. "I think she's cute." he read the page and held it towards Sasuke. "What do you think Sasuke-san?" Karin and Suigetsu stopped their fight to see what their stoic leader had to say.

Sasuke looked at the page and if he weren't an Uchiha, he would have stared wide-eyed at the woman in the picture. "That can't be right." he muttered.

"What can't be right?" Karin asked as she fixed her glasses.

"It's Sakura."

Suigetsu nodded. "Yeah. Haruno Sakura. Most sought out kunoichi if I heard the villagers right."

Sasuke glared at the picture of his old teammate and slammed the book shut. "We leave when the rain stops."

"Where are we going?" Juugo asked.

"To Konoha."

Not because he cared. He was… curious.

After all, Sakura hadn't mentioned anything of the sort the last time he had seen her.

Naruto looked at the three people standing before him and sighed. "So..?"

"I don't know Naruto…"

"Kakashi, we have to tell him."

Tsunade slammed her fist down on the desk. "He has no right to know anything about her!"

"Baa-chan! He deserves to know."

"That asshole deserves to be killed for what he did! You saw her! You saw what she went through because of him!"

"You don't know that-!" Kakashi grabbed Naruto's arm as he stalked by.

"Naruto." He sighed. "What of Sakura?" Kakashi asked. "She is on this team too you know."

Naruto looked at the desk and sighed. "I want Sakura-chan to stay home. She's getting worse and I don't want to speed up whatever is happening to her." A loud knock caught their attention.

"Come in?" Kakashi didn't know anyone else was coming.

The door opened and Ino came stomping in and glared at Naruto. "I can't do it. She doesn't want me in her house."

"What?"

"I found her in the bathtub drunk and high, Naruto. She could've died! I can't keep going to her house only to see her at her worst. I don't know what the hell happened to her, but she's pretty messed up about it."

"Drugged? But she doesn't..." and then he remembered that she was a medic-nin. She could make her own. "Damn... I'll have Hinata stay with her until we get back then..."

Ino looked at him with a hard glare. "Where the hell do you think you're going?"

"We're going to find Teme and bring him back."

Ino groaned. "Not again... How long are you going to work towards a lost cause? He's probably dead."

Naruto glared at Ino. "He's out there. I just have to find him and explain-"

"Get over it Naruto! Sasuke is gone! He left as soon as the war was over, and he isn't coming back. He made that very clear."

"Ino, please." Tsunade said from the corner of the room. "I'll talk to you later about what happened at Sakura's. Let them get out and on their way first."

Ino sighed and bowed. "Hai." she turned and left the room quietly.

"Well... I guess you leave when the rain stops." Kakashi said. "I'll go see Sakura. And then I'll send Hinata to stay with her for the time being." He looked over at Tsunade. "Maybe there is something you can give her? That way she is self-medicating?"

"Yeah."

"Alright. Team 7, you have a mission. Go."


End file.
